8vo. Title-page vignette, woodcut diagrams in text. Contemporary vellum, spine titled in manuscript, green cloth ties; slipcase. Provenance: early Jesuit stamp on title-page.

FIRST EDITION. “Julius Scaliger, in criticizing some views of Cardanus, and especially his definition of metal as something that can be melted and becomes hard when cooled, says that according to that, mercury would be no metal… which thus far cannot be melted by fire nor by any Spanish devices.” Stillman, Early Chemistry p.438).